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Yesterday after a week of mad weather ruining our schooling plans we set off for our lesson in glorious sunshine. My instructor decided to teach me how to teach Dustry a really useful exercise which will help supple him up (esp on his stiffer right rein) and improve his paces. The right way to do it (not how we are muddling along in the video!) is to ride the long side of the arena in leg yield to the outside, then when you reach the end do a turn on the forehand so you are facing in the opposite direction and then…

Today we went for our first lesson of 2012, and it felt great to be back in serious training again after the Christmas delays (with Dustry’s teeth and my instructor Amanda Brewer being away in her native home of Oz for the festive season). I haven’t been working him as ‘up and together’ as we were pre-xmas because I sort of ‘lost it’ a little due to the break in training, so it was great today to be coached back to (almost) where we were in November, and rediscover the feeling for how I should be riding/what I need to…

After Dustry’s dental work he needed a few days off for his gums to heal and any swelling to disperse. 4-5 days R&R were prescribed so he was in for an easy time over xmas. Dustry however had other plans! He is a total workaholic and if you give him more than a few days off he seems to have a talent for getting into trouble. On Dec 23rd after just 2 days off he managed to knock his whole door (including weave grill) off its hinges! He must have done this in the early evening, and then once loose…

Today I took Dustry to have his dental work, and what was suspected additional bone spurs or wolf teeth turned out to be wolf teeth! A year and a half ago Dustry had bone spurs (probably caused during his racing days by harsh use of a chifney) removed from his upper jaw (click here to read that blog entry) and every 6 months he has his teeth checked and rasped, this time the EDT detected something where the bones spurs used to be which needed further investigation. Today we drove to renowned EDT and dental expert Bob Livock to have…

I can’t stress enough how important it is to have your horse’s teeth regularly checked. As a rule I have my horses’ teeth checked and treated every 6 months (every 12 months when they are older/retired) On Dustry’s first dentist check they discovered that he had bone spurs on his upper jaw, these were removed and once the gums were healed he was brought back into work. He had another 6 month check today and sadly it seems either the initial bone spurs were holding back wolf teeth which are now trying to come down, or there were more bones…

As you know I’m a keen money saver and am always trawling the web to find the best deal, because you can save so much money if you do a little ‘savvy shopping’. One of my online faves for good horsey deals and offers is the Equine.co.uk facebook page. Atm they have a great discount code GFE50 which gives you 50% OFF Turf Legends clothing. Turf Legends (as the name might give it away!) do racing inspired clothing and replica racing colours shirts. I love these 2, Rooster Booster and Red Rum coloured shirts! These are a great gift idea for…

In order to try and ‘correct’ Dustry’s thoroughbred conformation (thin neck, natural tendency to try and balance by hollowing his neck) I have to always keep in mind when working him ‘fat neck, bouncy neck’ when I look down, between my reins I need to be able to see a big fat bouncy muscle pumping in his neck, over time this will grow and grow until he has much more top line than at present. Today in my lesson after a week of working really hard in the dark evenings after work to get ‘fat neck, bouncy neck’ there was a marked…

There is nothing that makes me more excited than to return home to find a big cardboard box with the words ‘mountain horse’ written on it! Mountain Horse have been my faithful sponsors now since 2009 and as well as sending me bits and bobs throughout the year every winter they send me a big ‘winter survival kit’ a box stuffed FULL of MH goodies to keep me warm, dry, and super stylish all winter. This year with Soap having to be PTS, and Dustry being brought on carefully and slowly I have felt a little guilty, because due to circumstances I don’t feel…

After several years of needing to make the same saddle fit multiple horses with various risers, pads, and girthing solutions now that GHE is a one horse band I decided it was time to take the plunge and sell my faithful orange close contact saddle, and invest in a ‘new’ saddle for Dustry in a more….errrm….appropriate colour?… 😉 Saddle fitting can some times feel like some sort of mystical art form with so many different opinions on offer, and prices that seem to go from the sublime to the ridiculous! I did a little online research to read reviews on saddlers in my area…

Without help on the ground to move poles, and adjust fences, jumping a young horse on your own is tricky. Last weekend was Dustry’s 2nd jumping lesson and after a week of working very hard on his canter and flatwork I was really looking forward to it. We started off with the usual flatwork exercises and he got his canter strike off’s correct every time, which was very satisfying. Then we began to work through a little grid, which was built up after each time he managed to correctly jump through the previous set up This is how the grid…